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Sansui 881 hum - solved thanks to audiokarma!

MagicMan said:
After reading this article about the cronic hum involved with so many sansui 881 receivers circa (1970-1974) I decided to take the advice about taking the bottom plate of the unit and tighten the Phillips screws holding the main board. Instead I tightened all boards just in case. I must say I had a hard time believing that this stated manoeuvre would even work at all but after reading other stories with other techs talking about soldering new wires and things to try and reground the board I thought I would at least try. All screws seamed pretty tight already but managed to at least barely barely tighten a couple anyway completely not believing this would do anything at all. Well after putting the bottom plate back on and firing the 881 back up much to my surprise the humming noise completely disappeared. One more thing I will say is that before when it dud hum it didn' get louder when turning up the music louder so I thought it did still sound very nice and I have also read other peopl saying don' worry about that humming noise and just use it since you can' hear it when you have the music up. Well let me be the first to tell everyone that ever tries this trick with success that I have also noticed a big improvement in the sound of this unit. I want to thank all those who share these types of trial and errors because I have a much better Sansui 881 receiver now. So with that said now I have to find someone to help me figure out why the tuner isn' working. Lol! I did discover one meter light burnt out which I pulled out before I put the cover back on which I will order. Also removing the cabinet off the unit was a beautiful thing because of all the dust over 44 years since new that built up. My air compressor gun did a fantastic job blowing it all out and pretty much looks new again. Thanks guys
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It has been awhile but I believe it is a faulty voltage regulator. no power to the tuner board
 
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Thanks treeslayer, I was hoping the tuner wasn't working on this sansui 881 was due to a fuse. I see 8 of them down in there but even unplugged I'm a little afraid to get zapped reaching deep down in there. Lol! One of the meter fuses is blown as well for the tuner. Bob, Bloomington illinois
 
4) tightening the screw on the pc board next to where the solder braid attaches, I tightened all the screws just for the heck of it. They all seemed fairly tight but I snugged them some more. Plugged it in and…. No hum!

This one just fixed the problem of another 881

Thanks for the info!
 
peterfranks said:
Thanks for posting - this is good additional information on this well documented issue with the Sansui xx1 family of receivers.
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I'm having a similar lite hum with my Sansui G5500 & Infinity SM82 speakers only but not with JBLs and my Sansui 771 plays the Infinities quiet ?no hum...Doesnt matter if volume is up or down or which function...Only the G5500 & Infinities ?
 
Fomoco1649 said:
I'm having a similar lite hum with my Sansui G5500 & Infinity SM82 speakers only but not with JBLs and my Sansui 771 plays the Infinities quiet ?no hum...Doesnt matter if volume is up or down or which function...Only the G5500 & Infinities ?
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They are 8 ohm speakers as far as I know & sound good but dont want to damage my Sansui G5500 reciever....
 
Another 'thank you' for this advice, bought an 881 online 'untested', showed up working but buzzing, pulled the bottom panel, found that the ground screw was corroded, cleaned it up, no more buzz. Thanks AK, I'm going to donate some extra $ for the trouble that saved me in troubleshooting the unit.

BTW, I haven't really listened to the 881 yet, but I recently recapped a 771 and it ended up being one of the best sounding receivers (IMO, YMMV, etc.) that I've had (proof of that is buying the 881, I definitely wasn't in the market beforehand) and I fix receivers for fun so I've had a lot of them from various brands. The loudness contour and the smoothness of the high end (at least on the 771) were superb. This series is, to me, under the radar receivers that are still relatively cheap for what you get and fairly easy to work on, so while everyone's chasing the 8080/9090 and ignoring these, pick one up... I bet you'll be happy.
 
merder said:
Another 'thank you' for this advice, bought an 881 online 'untested', showed up working but buzzing, pulled the bottom panel, found that the ground screw was corroded, cleaned it up, no more buzz. Thanks AK, I'm going to donate some extra $ for the trouble that saved me in troubleshooting the unit.

BTW, I haven't really listened to the 881 yet, but I recently recapped a 771 and it ended up being one of the best sounding receivers (IMO, YMMV, etc.) that I've had (proof of that is buying the 881, I definitely wasn't in the market beforehand) and I fix receivers for fun so I've had a lot of them from various brands. The loudness contour and the smoothness of the high end (at least on the 771) were superb. This series is, to me, under the radar receivers that are still relatively cheap for what you get and fairly easy to work on, so while everyone's chasing the 8080/9090 and ignoring these, pick one up... I bet you'll be happy.
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Agree, I picked up a clean 661 for pennys on the dollar of the 8080/9090. SQ is really good, super easy to work on too. This series is definitely under the radar!
 
Wow, what a find. I just picked up an 881 this week. Speaker hum. Googled and found this. Will try to tighten tonight and report back!
 
Old thread but have to say thank you for saving me the debug time. After a full recap, I sighed at the notion of tracking down the hum and ground issue. I came to my trusted AK resources and shazam! Worked like a charm. For what it's worth, I brass brush polished the screws to shiny-and-new brightness, used a tad of deoxit, and reset the screws for good contact. Hopefully will last another owner or two after I'm through enjoying it. Thanks again!
 
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